Reviews

"What happened to Monday" suffers from lazy writing which leads to a very predictable and meaningless plot. The premise is a near future where over-population has lead to a shortage of resources. In order to remedy this a world-wide policy of one child per family is introduced. The story begins where identical septuplets have managed to fool the Child Allocation Bureau for 30 years and then one does not return, hence the title of the film.

One of the failures is the characterization, there are 7 distinct personalities in play but the differences are so extreme that it is implausible that to think that to the outside world they would seem like one person and for roughly 23years keeping up the act.

Maybe it was supposed to be an action movie, but the action sequences are not well planned and also many of the scenes lead to dead ends so you feel you wasted some time following a particular plot path.

Thus (5/10)

"Gifted" is a family drama delving into many areas of contention with regards to children and guardianship. Mckenna Grace portrays Mary, a mathematics child prodigy, whose mother was also a mathematics child prodigy. The story begins where Mary's uncle is her guardian after her mother had died in an apparent suicide.

McKenna delivers an outstanding performance that makes her character totally believable and her situation understandable. Chris Evans as the uncle, also puts in an outstanding performance. The interaction between child and guardian is what drives the narrative and as obstacles appear they deal with them.

The major plot point is a battle for custody of the child between the the uncle who wants her to have a childhood and the grandmother who wants her to reach her full potential and eventually become like her mother and suffer her mother's outcome? This was where the movie lost some rating points because the portrayal of the grandmother, Evelyn, by Lindsay Duncan was like cardboard. I would have liked to have seen some of the emotion related to the loss of a loved one even if it was six years earlier. The relationship between mother and son was not believable at all.

The movie is enjoyable, but it has been done before. I do however see a bright future for Mckenna Grace.

Life falls into the same category of films like Species(1995). Where the theme of the film is mans curiosity to explore for signs of life leading to the potential extinction of life as we know it. Start with a controlled experiment where you underestimate the strength or intelligence of the subject. The subject escapes and you have your plot.

So what is wrong with "Life". It is a very weak on the sci-fi side. It is almost as if the writers did not spend any time theorising about possible situations that may occur. That is the effort that goes into designing a system or protocol for investigating something that may have catastrophic effects on the human race. Once, you get that wrong, then it is very hard for any sci-fi fan to take you seriously.

Two movies with Mars as part of the story, The Space Between Us(2017) and The Martian (2015) are good examples of putting proper thought into a story. The stories are interwoven with the writers postulations of what may happen.

"Life" at no point was scary or thought provoking.There are much better films on offer.

I did not intend to watch this movie at the cinema, but when I tried to book tickets for Rogue One the show had just sold out. So my expectations were not very high.

The movie starts very slowly and you get an introduction to each character. You get a little snippet of their associated talents and a little bit of a back story before the finale.

This is an animated feature from the Illumination production house, the creators of the minions. The animation is top notch and adds to the development of the characters. The story take a little bit of time to develop and there was a point where I was almost bored, but this movie is much better than "Minions" and "Despicable Me 2". The soundtrack and the closing is what really makes it.

So overall, it is a refreshing offering for the festive season and an enjoyable family movie.

Nerve is a highly stylized excursion into social media and augmented reality gaming and the perils that lurk within this domain of interaction. Looking through the lens, spying on the main character as she goes about her daily routine the viewer is drawn into the whole experience. Initially, it is new and exciting and oh so easy. But, as the the challenges in the game become more dangerous and the subscribers become more demanding, the suspense begins to build.

The acting is of a very high standard which adds to the overall enjoyment of the narrative. The movie is aimed at a young and upcoming audience and delivers.

Sequels are rarely better than their predecessors. Independence Day:Resurgence is a mediocre attempt to carry on the story from where Independence Day left off. I have watched many of Roland Emmerich's previous "Sci-fi" offerings, the likes of Stargate, 10000 BC, 2012. The movies are entertaining and not to be taken seriously.

The story telling is very weak in this installment and assumes that the viewer has watched the predecessor some 20 years ago. Also the plausibility with the respect to the setting in context of what has transpired before in 20 years would technology have advanced so much given that in the first movie with 45 years since Roswell they could'nt figure out how the alien tech worked in the absence of the Mothership. That would be taking the movie too seriously.

All in all this is not a total failure, it has some good fun moments.

I like movies set in space and involving some element of time travel. Interstellar was interesting to watch but the plot took a long time to unfold. I liked the way certain of the scientific elements of the story was explained to the viewer. However the writing was a little weak and certain plot elements implausible, which made the whole viewing experience a little confusing because is it an action movie or science fiction?

The acting was generally above average and the cinematography impressive. I am a fan of Matthew McConaughey especially as he applies himself well in most of his character portrayals. Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain do well portraying the daughter swap central to the theme of the film.

The movie also brings about many questions that the viewer may ask, should I go or should I stay? Overall, enjoyable but maybe some better editing would have improved the whole experience.

I watched the movie over the weekend and wondered for the first three quarters what the movie was about. The visuals gave the movie somewhat of a comic feel. The apparitions were visually stunning and scary at times but also unrealistic and comical. They did not add to the movement of the plot which was also very thin. Overall, the movie should have been shortened to a run time of just over 1 and a half hours. There were many characters that simply did not drive the narrative.

One plus for the movie is the thematic use of colour which kind reflects the emotions of the main protagonist.

The film has a reasonable plot, but weak acting and direction leads to a weak presentation.

Thrillers are supposed to keep the audience guessing. Throw in some red herrings here and there, a scary moment or two, some clues and the viewer gets embroiled in the experience.

Jodie Foster is brilliant in her role, but the supporting cast do not bring up their end. This is a similar role for her to the one she had in Panic Room. Sean Bean as the Captain of the plane, is not believable.

The film has some entertainment value, thus average score.

This movie will appeal to die hard fans of the series. It is a reasonable adaption of the first part of the book. The graphical presentation is impressive. You do get a sense for the environment and breathtaking locations. However the acting is weak all-round. None of key moments are portrayed with any sense of conviction and this leads to an average presentation. The story telling is also a weak point, since film fails to convey the inner turmoil experienced by the main protagonists.

Considering the target audience, I think this movie will perform reasonably well at the box-office in anticipation of the finale'.

I watched this movie at a sneak preview in South Africa. I found the plot and script weak. The storyline was also weak and lacked originality. However, my school going kids enjoyed the movie. The music and animation is generally good.

As a sequel trying to build on the success of the original, I do not see this movie making the grade. In the original movie Mumble, representing the Emperor penguin plight, had a genuine problem where the human population needed to be made aware of their impact on the environment. He achieved this by communicating through dance. In the original, the viewer easily decoded the message, that over-fishing in the Antarctic has dire consequences on the Antarctic ecosystem. The sequel however fails to convey its message, since the script and plot do not lead the audience in that direction. I think the message is got yo to do with global warming, maybe.

I think 5/10 is a fair score.

I have watched parts of this movie more than once. The movie from start to finish only once. Each story unfolds like a facet on the quilt. Then as the main plot line draws to a conclusion, the thread that binds these stories together resolves each individual facet, to complete the whole.

Quilting as I understand it, is bringing many contributions together to create a final product. Each little design tells a story and the master quilter put's these stories together , to convey a theme or message.

I have not read the novel, but the movie conveys the message in it's title.

The soundtrack is tranquil and adds to the mood.

The interplay between Burstyn and Bancroft is a pleasure to watch. Winona is excellent.